Arthritis Drugs

New arthritis dugs are the result of biotechnology advances

Until recently, most rheumatoid arthritis drugs only treated symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, not underlying causes. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that involves inflammation of the lining of the joints. It can lead to long-term joint damage, resulting in chronic pain, loss of function and disability. Rheumatoid arthritis is also a systemic disease, meaning that it is not confined to one or several joints; it affects the whole body and seems to be related to problems with the immune system.

However, with advances in the field of biotechnology, it is now possible to understand disease at the level of protein activity, giving researchers more clues about diseases work and what kind of arthritis drugs might stop the disease process.

Leflunomide (Arava) is one of the arthritis drugs that is available to relieve the symptoms and halt the progression of the disease. It seems to work by blocking the action of an important enzyme that has a role in immune activation.

Etanercept (Enbrel), infliximab (Remicade), and adalimumab (Humira) are biologic arthritis drugs. These medications intercept a protein in the joints that causes inflammation before it can act to "switch on" inflammation. This effectively blocks the inflammation messenger from calling out to the cells of inflammation. Symptoms can be significantly, and often rapidly, improved in patients using these drugs. These arthritis drugs are quite expensive and at this time, these arthritis drugs are recommended for use after other medications have not been effective.

Anakinra (Kineret) is another biologic arthritis drug that is used to treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Anakinra (Kineret) works by binding to a cell messenger protein in order to stop inflammation. Anakinra (Kineret) is injected under the skin daily. This arthritis drug has not had as positive a response rate as with other biologic medications.

One final treatment is less an arthritis drug than a therapy. Blood is pumped out of the body through an IV then filtered through a special separator that removed antibodies that produce inflammation. This method is used in severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis that does not respond to other arthritis drugs.

The field of arthritis drugs is changing rapidly and more new arthritis drugs are being offered every year.